The Jacket: Polling Is Open

Visit Peg-o-leg’s blog and read some fantastic short fiction entries in her current The Jacket contest. I am thrilled to be one of the finalists. It was tons o’ fun and helped get me out of that writer’s funk and start writing fiction again. Happy weekend!

Boy, howdy this was tough! I asked a distinguished panel of 3 judges to review the entries for me. Our criteria was simple: we were looking for an interesting story, told well. We had consensus on several of the entries, but were widely apart on others. I debated having a top 10 list, but decided that many was too unwieldy. In the end I had to resort to taking up strong drink to narrow the field to 6.

Entries are again presented in the order in which I received them. The Polldaddy poll is below the last entry. Please vote only once per day until the polls close next Friday, March 30th.

Thank you so much to all who submitted entries! I hope you had fun – I know that I did.

Thanks MJ. Harlequin romance?! now there’s an idea…ha! Truth be told, when I wrote that entry, I had just finished watching four complete seasons of Mad Men in a span of two weeks. Lots of drinking, smoking, etc etc etc…

Don’t be embarrassed, it took me until recently to see what all the hubbub was about. I love the show. It’s fascinating to me…the sets, the wardrobe, the rampant sexism…the rampant sex…it’s like a soap opera but with Jon Hamm. Great stuff.

It was fun. It was good to get back into writing fiction again, Mags. Not that some of my current posts aren’t pure fiction….like wanting my husband to understand me and do the dishes without me asking him to…I suppose I write mainly fantasy.

Congratulations, Darla! In middle school, during student elections, we were told never to share who’d we’d voted for, as it would make the ones we didn’t pick feel bad. But I’m not in middle school, so I can tell you that I voted for you! Very well done. And I can definitely see the Mad Men overtones. Or is it undertones? Who knows. But all your tones were great. 🙂

Ha! I’m sure I would look pasty in green plaid as well. I won’t win anyway, so it’s okay. It’s just a pleasure to be nominated. (I’ve had lots of practice with that line with GG’s caption contests) I tried to reread my entry yesterday but could’t get past the first paragraph. It’s kinda like when you see a picture of yourself or hear your own voice, you cringe. Ugh! Blech.

I am relieved you like the blog banner and tagline. If YOU approve, I will keep it. I was soooo sick of changing it up and last night I said, screw it. It will stay this way, dammit. I am not tech-savvy or banner-savvy and it was the best I could come up with.
Plaid + coffee = Me in a nutshell